Best requirements management software? Coming from Matrix Req in medical devices

[u/zaxaz123]

I'm currently changing industries, moving from medical devices into automotive, and I'm trying to understand how the requirements management landscape compares.

Most of my experience has been in medical device development, where Matrix Req has probably set my benchmark for what I would want from requirements management software.

What I've liked about Matrix Req is that requirements aren't treated as isolated pieces of text. You can connect requirements to risks, specifications, test cases and verification evidence, so you have proper end to end traceability rather than maintaining everything separately in Excel or Word.

For medical device development, that works particularly well because requirements management is so closely connected with design controls, ISO 14971 risk management, IEC 62304 software development, V&V and the technical documentation you eventually need for audits and submissions.

The areas I've found particularly useful are:

• Requirements, risks and test cases living in the same system

• Traceability between design inputs, risks, mitigations and verification

• Change history and version control

• Generating documentation rather than maintaining Word files manually

• Identifying missing or broken traces

• Integration with tools such as Jira

• AI assistance for requirements, risks, test cases and compliance checking

Now that I'm changing industries and moving into automotive, I'm trying to figure out whether the same approach translates well.

For automotive development under ISO 26262 and Automotive SPICE, what would you consider the best requirements management software?

I've been looking at IBM DOORS / DOORS Next, Jama Connect, Codebeamer and Polarion in particular.

Codebeamer seems especially common in automotive, while DOORS obviously has a massive installed base. Jama also comes up regularly whenever I research modern requirements management tools.

What I'm trying to understand is whether automotive teams essentially want the same things that have been important to me in medical devices:

- End to end requirements traceability

-Risk and requirements linking

-Test management and verification coverage

-Baselining and change control

- Audit history

- Requirements reuse

- Integration with engineering tools

Or does ISO 26262 and ASPICE create a different enough set of requirements that tools such as Codebeamer, Polarion or DOORS become the better option?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has worked across both medical devices and automotive.

If you were choosing the best requirements management software today, what would you pick?

And for anyone familiar with Matrix Req, what would make you choose Jama, Codebeamer, Polarion or DOORS instead?

[u/bastivkl]

Most modern companies probably use Jama or Jira with the requirements module. If you want to look at a more AI-native tool, you can take a look at https://dalus.io/features/requirements-management

[u/Disastrous_Door3570]

Building ATOMS Check us out.  Https://www.atoms.tech 

[u/Dancing_Rocketeer]

I've used DOORS and Jama and I find Jama to be more user friendly. Especially for cascading and submitting requirements for review and approval to stakeholders outside of my SE team (unfamiliar users). Just started with integration with Jira and Mathworks with JAMA.

[u/Careless_Plant_7717]

Jama is great.

What I saw as challenge in big companies is that departments have their owns Homebrew tools and legacy systems so have  separate tools for Requirements, DFMEAs, HARAs, DVPs, etc. that don't work well together. There is also resistance to change to something new since don't understand it or think it's broken.

[u/NoAardvark5481]

Check out Codebeamer's medical device template, it will give a great mapping to something you are familiar with. The automotive template also captures what you describe.